Most of 2011 was spent debating the pros and cons of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the retail sector. But on this special series, Young Turks goes beyond that to analyze if the government’s claim that organized retail will generate more employment and encourage more entrepreneurship holds true. The entire retail economy system is explored, right from the small and medium vendors to private labors that are vying to shelve space to the global retail giants who are changing the rules of the game.

With a population of 1.2 billion, retailing in India it is one of the pillars of the economy. The size of the retail sector is estimated at around USD 450 billion, but organized retail accounts for a mere 5% of the total market and is expected to touch 20% by 2020. According to a report by a global consultancy, food accounts for 70% of Indian retail but is so far largely out of the domain of organized retail. The story is different for clothing and apparel, where organized retail has a 30% share. As India's middle class grows, organized retail is expected to gain further momentum.

Remanika is one brand that has made its presence felt in 36 cities across India with its apparel brand. Seema Kakkar tapped into the growing retail buzz and has emerged a significant player in the Indian retail space, with her labels splashed across Shoppers stop, Westside, Pantaloons Lifestyle and more. Seema strives for Remanika to be the numero uno brand in women western wear in the country.

What else is on Remanika's drawing board? Read on to find out!

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In 1994, Seema Kakkar’s label Remanika was a mould breaker. A high street western wear brand for women, Remanika came in at a time when malls didn’t dot our urban landscape and fashionable western casual wear was not in vogue.

Launched in 1996, the Remanika brand today is sold in a 160 outlets across 36 cities in India. Available in large format stores like Pantaloons, Shoppers’ Stop, Lifestyle, Central and even Westside, Remanika is priced anywhere between Rs 400 to Rs 4000.

For a business that started with personal savings of Rs 5 lakh, today Remanika is eying a turnover of Rs 65 crore. 16 years on, Seema feels she has arrived and believes the adamant of organized retail helped open up the market and change the mindset of the consumer.

“Organized retailing is really interesting. It gives you a platform to understand processes, supply chain management, information technology and comes very handy. I would say the width and depth of the business is well understood, and the kind of input that you could and the information that you can pass on through these organized retailing formats is very large,” she said exclusively to CNBC-TV18. She further adds that single outlet business narrows down the understanding of the actual jackpot which sits for retailers in India.

“With these organized retailers, like these large multi brand outlets, you get a very big width understanding of a customer base that you are handling,” she said, going on to say that it gives an amazing understanding of supply chain management, IT, customer body type, etc.

With the industry evolving, the trend now for most modern apparel brands like Remanika is to outsource their manufacturing to third party. For vendors like Sanjeev Kataria of Shree Balaji Fashions, this means an increase in volumes as well as profits. Manufacturing garments for brands like Remanika and exporting to companies in Europe and Brazil, Shree Balaji Fashions today has crossed revenues of Rs 4 crore.

“It has helped us develop lot of expertise like embroideries and prints specifically for them because Remanika is a brand which is known for its fashion products,” said Kataria. “They give us that leeway to experiment, they give us lot of leads as to how they want their garments to look and so we work hard on that and we learn lot of things in the process.”

In the industry, the margins are between 10-15% for a fashion item. Since Remanika is a brand, they have a pan India presence they are able to give business right through the year for Shree Balaji Fashions. “We running the factory don’t have to go to small people and get orders from them. Remanika is one brand which can give us good orders for us to run through out the season. “

After dressing up Indian women, Remanika is now focusing on becoming a one stop shop for woman’s fashion. In the works of a shoe line, lingerie line and even hair salons, Seema is also eying the tier 2 and tier 3 markets for expansion.

So what else is on her drawing board? “Private equity is surely a possibility. I am looking at it very seriously because we are looking at expansion in a big way,” said Kakkar. Remanika had a brand call ‘go sexy’ for which the came in 2002 for the brand. “I also want to launch a line which is ‘club wear’ which will be on small format stores which will be like a boutique line and it will be only in the metros for now,” she added.

She is also working on another brand for the youth which will focus on denim and casual tees. “I want to have a one stop shop for women where we bring in spas, nail art, hair, hoes etc; I want to do everything under one roof one day,” she said.